Shortlist of Architects Announced for Music Center in London
|
Version 0 of 1. Amanda Levete, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Frank Gehry, Snohetta: The starriest of starchitects are on the shortlist to design London’s new Center for Music, a future home for the London Symphony Orchestra and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. All of the architects on the shortlist, which was announced Monday, have extensive experience working on cultural buildings. Ms. Levete, who heads the architectural firm AL_A, and is collaborating on the Center for Music proposal with Diamond Schmitt Architects of Canada, recently designed the extension to the Victoria & Albert museum in London. Diller Scofidio + Renfro is currently working on an expansion project for the Museum of Modern Art in New York as well as designing the Shed, a major new Manhattan cultural center. Mr. Piano’s France-based firm designed the just-opened Santander art gallery in Spain, while Mr. Foster’s practice has designed the Carré d’Art in Nîmes, France, and the Winspear Opera House in Dallas. Snohetta, a Norway and New York-based collaborative, has designed a theater for the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, as well as the International Center for Cave Art in Montignac, France. The éminence grise of the batch, Mr. Gehry, is known worldwide for his distinctive titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, as well as for the Walt Disney Concert hall in Los Angeles and the Vuitton Foundation in Paris. The Center for Music has been championed by Simon Rattle, who will become music director of the London Symphony Orchestra in September. It is planned for the site currently occupied by the Museum of London. It is close to the Barbican, the symphony’s current home, which Mr. Rattle recently described as unsuitable for about 20 percent of the repertoire he would like to cover. The viability of building a major new concert hall in London has been widely debated, and the future of the Center was thrown into doubt last November, when the British government withdrew its commitment to contribute 5 million pounds (about $6.4 million) to pay for a business plan. The City of London Corporation stepped in with 2.5 million pounds (about $3.2 million) to allow project to go ahead. The center will include a concert hall with up to 2,000 seats, as well as education and training spaces. The estimated cost of 200 million to 250 million pounds ($257 million to $322 million) is to be covered with private and philanthropic donations. The shortlisted architects have been asked to provide detailed designs as well as estimated costs, and the winner will be announced this fall. |